Planning Ahead with the One You Love

As spring approaches, and we near graduation days, Mother’s Day, Memorial Day, Father’s Day, and the busy wedding season, we are surrounded by people celebrating the past and the future, making plans and buzzing with spring fever.

Along with the celebrations comes assessing our lives and plans for the future. If you’re like most of us, your list includes taking stock of your finances, making sure insurance plans are adequate, and even if there’s room in the budget for a romantic or family getaway. This year, make sure you include updating your emergency, critical and advance care plan or, if you don’t yet have one, taking that important step.

An American Journal of Public Health study found that more than 60% of adults want their health care wishes to be respected, but only about a third of them have advance care plans detailing those wishes. The reasons why? Some respondents did not know such a thing existed, some believed they were too healthy to worry about it, and others thought it would be too complicated or take too long.

But a medical emergency can strike anyone at any time, and the United States sees nearly 140 million emergency department visits per year. Without advance care plans, the health care that’s delivered is your doctor’s best guess, or hospital policy. It might be too much or too little, uncomfortable or futile, or just not in line with your wishes.

Not only that, you may need to pay for costly care that you or your spouse did not even want. A 2013 study found that medical bills are the number one cause of personal bankruptcy, and though doctors are required to provide emergency care, you can still get a bill at the end.

In this day and age, as we have the opportunity to personalize our human experience more and more, MyDirectives thinks we should have the same opportunity with our healthcare. And we ought to help our loved ones record their wishes as well.

If conceptualizing your advance care plan sounds like too much work during this busy time, the good news is that MyDirectives.com and MyDirectivesMOBILE at the Apple App store make it extremely easy. Cross one big thing off your to-do list, and provide some peace of mind in case of an emergency.